Saturday, October 8, 2011

Central Washington's defense held Western Oregon to minus 21 yards rushing and figured in three of the Wildcats' four first-half touchdowns in a 41-10 home victory Saturday before 4,223 fans at Tomlinson Stadium.

In Saturday's other conference game, Simon Fraser overcame a 10-point deficit in the final 6:05 of regulation and went on to outlast Dixie State 62-56  in the highest scoring game in conference history. It was the Clan's first GNAC win in its two seasons in the league.

Meanwhile, Humboldt State (5-0) stayed unbeaten defeating Football Championship Subdivision member UC Davis 23-17  before 9,770 fans at Aggie Stadium.

Freshman running back Levi Taylor rushed for 116 yards on 29 carries, including touchdown runs of four, one and five yards in Central's win. The latter two came in the second quarter.

Taylor's first TD finished off a five-play, 14-yard drive after linebacker Stan Langlow forced a fumble, which was recovered by DB Genesis Fonoimoana.

In the second quarter Taylor capped off a 70-yard, 14-play drive scoring on a third-and-goal from the one-yard line. It was CWU's third third-down conversion of the drive.

A six-yard interception return by Stetson Shearer set up Taylor's third TD which came on a 40-yard, three-play drive. A 14-yard pass from Ryan Robertson to Robert Akeo-Orr took the ball down the the Wolf 11. Taylor then had consecutive runs of six and five yards to produce the TD.

Twenty-nine seconds later Fonoimoana's 41-yard interception return gave CWU a 27-3 halftime lead. That was one of five takeaways for the Wildcats who turned the ball over five times in a 14-7 loss at Western Oregon last month in Monmouth.

After a scoreless third quarter, the Wildcats went ahead 41-3 in the fourth period as Akeo-Orr scored on a 36-yard pass from Robertson and Armahd Lewis caught a 42-yard TD pass from the CWU QB.

Western Oregon scored its touchdown with 4:57 left in the game on a 95-yard run-and-catch by Trevor Gates off a pass from Evan Mozzochi. Gates ended the contest with six catches for 169 yards.

That play fell one yard shy of the longest from scrimmage in GNAC history, a 96-yard Western Washington pass from Adam Perry to Pat McCann against Dixie State in 2008.

It also accounted for more than one-third of WOU's 275 yards in total offense. Mozzochi completed 19 of 33 passes for 296 yards, but the Wolves lost 21 on 23 rush plays.

CWU ended up with 372 yards. Robertson completed 15 of 24 passes for 198 yards. Akeo-Orr had five catches for 73 yards.

Langlow led Central (2-3, 2-2) with eight tackles, while Shearer had seven. Linebacker Scott Foss had eight tackles, two for losses, for the Wolves (3-3, 3-1) who fell out of a tie for first-place in the GNAC with the defeat.

Simon Fraser 62, Dixie State 56 (3ot)

The Clan who led 17-0 after one quarter rallied from a 42-32 fourth-quarter deficit and overcame a GNAC-record eight-touchdown performance by Dixie freshman quarterback Stefan Cantwell to end a 12-game conference losing streak.

Cantwell finished the game with 476 yards of total offense, rushing for 119 yards and three touchdowns and passing for 357 yards and five TDs. His touchdown passing total matched a GNAC record.

Simon Fraser, however, got a 24-yard pass from Trey Wheeler to BJ Bryant with 6:05 remaining and then a 23-yard field goal from Ian Sternau with nine seconds left to force overtime.

In the first OT period, SFU went ahead on a 15 pass from Wheeler to Bobby Pospischil, but Darren Carter caught a four yard pass from Cantwell to tie it at 49-49.

On the first play of the second extra session, Joe Don Duncan scored on a 25-yard pass from Cantwell. SFU, however, answered with a five-play, drive scoring on a sneak by backup QB Greg Bowcott.

Simon Fraser got its opening in the third extra session when Cantwell tossed incomplete passes on third and fourth downs play from the 18.

Palmer then ended it quickly with two runs, increasing his game total to 178 yards on 31 rushes and his season average to 136.7 per game.

Simon Fraser finished the contest with 572 yards in total offense, including 266 rushing. Wheeler completed 24 of 33 passes for 306 yards and three touchdowns.

Pospischil had 10 receptions for 79 yards and Bryant caught six for 134. Palmer had 58 yards on five catches to finish with 236 all-purpose yards.

Dixie had 497 yards as Cantwell completed 25 of 46 passes for 357 yards. He also rushed for 119. Duncan had nine catches for 101 yards.

Skyler Fullmer led the Red Storm with 13 tackles and Cache Morgan, who had 141 return yards, had 12 tackles. Justin Capicciotti had 10 tackles for the Clan, three of them for losses of 19 yards.

The total of 118 combined points by the two schools broke the old GNAC record of 116 points in a 75-41 Central Washington win over Fort Lewis in 2002.

The contest was the second three overtime game in GNAC history. Western Washington defeated Western Oregon 20-17 in three extra periods in 2002.

The longest ever GNAC game was a four-overtime contest between the Vikings and Wolves in 2004. Western Oregon won that game 52-49.

Humboldt State 23, UC Davis 17

Blumberg earlier had made field goals of 37 and 19 yards. He also kicked two extra points accounting for 11 of HSU's 23 points.

Mike Proulx led Humboldt State to 370 yards of total offense after completing 15 of 25 passes for 247 yards and two touchdowns.

In addition to Dallas who made four catches, Victor Spencer had some big plays on offense, collecting three catches for 91 yards.

Humboldt State used a big play to reach the scoreboard first, as Proulx connected with Dallas for a 61-yard touchdown reception at the 8:37 mark in the first half.

The Aggies didn't take long to respond, answering on the following drive with a touchdown pass of their own. Wright found Hemmingsen in the far corner for a 14-yard score, capping off a 10-play 59-yard drive.

UC Davis took its first lead of the game on a Sean Kelley 20-yard field goal. However, the Lumberjacks evened the score on a 37-yard field goal by Blumberg with 9:21 in the second period.

Late in the third quarter Humboldt went ahead 13-10 on Blumberg's 19-yard field goal. The 'Jackets then made it a 10-point advantage on a six-yard TD pass from Proulx to Dallas.

UC Davis got back in the game in a hurry, using a 50-yard touchdown pass to Hemmingsen to make the score 20-17 with 5:41 remaining in the game.

The Lumberjacks managed the clock over the next five minutes, en route to a 43-yard field goal for Blumberg.

Humboldt finished the game with a narrow 370-365 edge in total offense. UCD QB Randy Wright completed 26 of 50 passes for 287 of the Aggies' yards.

Defensively, Jeremiah Maluia led Humboldt with nine tackles. He also had his team's lone interception. UCD had one sack, the first against Proulx this season.